Stolen Childhoods

Narrated by Meryl Streep and filmed in eight countries, broadcast worldwide and translated into six languages, STOLEN CHILDHOODS is the story of 215 million children for whom life is nothing but work.

The film places these children’s stories in the broader context of the worldwide struggle against child labor. Stolen Childhoods provides an understanding of the causes of child labor, what it costs the global community, how it contributes to global insecurity and what it will take to eliminate it.

Shot in eight countries (Brazil, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal and the United States), the film includes slave and bonded labor footage never seen before. It has framing interviews with U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (the leading legislative advocate for global action to eliminate child labor) and human rights advocates for children: Bruce Harris, Pharis Harvey, Inderjit Khurana, Wangari Maathai and Kailash Satyarthi.

The film shows best practice programs that remove children from work and put them in school, so that they have a chance to develop as children and also have a chance of making a reasonable living when they grow up. Stolen Childhoods challenges the viewer to help break the cycle of poverty for the 215 million children laboring at the bottom of the global economy.

Profiled on CNN, The Oprah Winfrey Show and NBC News Nightline, Aaron Brown called the film “a powerful piece of journalism, a testament to the dedication of the filmmakers.” Released theatrically in the US (20 cities) and syndicated on PBS, it has been used in curricula by hundreds of universities worldwide. The film examines the causes, nature and elimination of child labor trafficking and slavery.